Frame Toby

"Frame Toby" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the show's eighty-first episode overall. The episode aired in the United States on November 20, 2008 on NBC.

On November 25, 2008, a producer's cut of "Frame Toby" was posted on NBC.com. This cut ran approximately four minutes longer than the original airing. After nearly a two-year absence, this is the first producer's cut since season three's "The Return".

In this episode, Michael has trouble accepting the fact that his least favorite employee, HR rep Toby, has returned to the office and enlists Dwight's help to frame him for using drugs so he will be fired. Meanwhile, Pam is disgusted over a mess left in the microwave that no one bothers to clean up, and Jim buys his parents' house - without telling Pam.

Synopsis

The episode starts with the staff eating brownies in the conference room. When Kelly picks two brownies, Ryan asks why she is taking two. She explains that she is taking one to Toby. Michael laughs because he believes that Toby is still in Costa Rica. Jim challenges him to go see for himself. He doesn't find Toby at first, but Toby comes up behind him and Michael screams in absolute horror.

Michael is upset when he learns that Toby (Paul Lieberstein) is back as their HR representative, particularly because he is in essence replacing Holly. He tries to get CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley) to get rid of Toby, but Wallace refutes Michael's attempt. Michael says he has been unaware of Toby's return, which happened a week before as he hasn't gone back to the annex since Holly was transferred. Michael tries to pretend to be friends with Toby, but he finds himself unable to do so. He then schemes with Dwight (Rainn Wilson) to frame Toby for violating company policy. They attempt to set him up for sexual harassment by using Pam (Jenna Fischer) as bait, but Pam quickly defuses the scheme. Michael tries provoking Toby into punching him by ridicule, which proves fruitless. Finally, Michael decides to plant drugs in Toby's desk, and purchases what he believes to be marijuana for $500 from two Vance Refrigeration employees. Dwight calls the police, who arrive shortly afterward (much to the concern of Creed (Creed Bratton), who steps forward with hands upraised when they head towards Toby's desk, and hides in the conference room pretending to talk with the camera crew until the cops leave). The police apprehend Toby and search through his desk. Michael, starting to feel guilty, tries to take the blame, but the police discover that the planted "marijuana" is really a bag of Caprese salad. After the police leave, Toby calmly scolds Michael for wasting the cops' time when they could have been catching real criminals. Michael, however, is disgusted that Toby is more worried about the cops' time than about possibly being framed, and remains as hateful towards Toby as ever.

Pam gets frustrated when she finds a big mess in the microwave, and writes an anonymous memo on the microwave telling everyone to keep it clean. Her coworkers find the note to be snobbish - except for Angela (Angela Kinsey), who agrees with the message, and Ryan (B. J. Novak), who unsuccessfully tries to manipulate Pam into cleaning the microwave. Meredith all but admits to leaving the mess when she starts talking about how she doesn't have time to clean up after herself because she doesn't get paid to be a maid between her job at the office, tending to her children and being a part-time maid. Ryan later tells Kelly (Mindy Kaling) that they have to break up again, saying he is allegedly going on a long term trip to Thailand with friends, before asking for sex one last time and for any money she possesses.

It is revealed to the entire office that Jim (John Krasinski) bought his parents' house without asking Pam, mentioning to the camera crew that he is helping out his mother and getting a good deal. Jim begins to think keeping it a secret from Pam might have been a bad idea. Nevertheless, he takes her after work to show her. He gives her a tour of the imperfect house before showing her the garage, which he turned into an art studio for her. After noticing a seemingly disappointed look on Pam's face, and the fact that she has been speechless the entire tour, Jim tells her he acknowledges that the house is not perfect and that he took a big risk buying it without telling her. He lets her know that it is okay if she does not like it, but Pam excitedly tells him that she loves the house.

At the close of the episode, Dwight describes his perfect crime, which involves theft of a chandelier from Tiffany's, travel to Canada and Berlin, and having a son who becomes chief of police.

References

External links

• "Frame Toby" at NBC.com
• "Frame Toby" at the Internet Movie Database